Nanoantenna Arrays on Flexible Material Capture Mid-Infrared Rays

At the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, a new kind of solar energy collector is being developed.

At the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, a new kind of solar energy collector is being developed. The technology revolves around the use of nanoantenna arrays which are tiny gold squares (or spirals), billions of which are set in treated polyethylene. The finished product won't be a stiff solar cell, but rather a flexible lightweight "skin" which could be stuck at the back of electronics or even electric vehicles.

This new solar energy collector boasts higher efficiency rating than conventional photovoltaics because it doesn't just harness visible energy, it actually targets mid-infrared rays which the earth usually absorbs and gives off as heat. Infrared rays are an especially hard energy source to collect from, although we've also reported on another technology called "stepping-stone solar cell" which harnesses energy from that spectrum. According to the experiments conducted by the researchers, the nanoantenna arrays could display up to 92 percent efficiency.

Unfortunately, there's still no existent technology which could convert the harnessed infrared rays by the arrays into electricity, so there will definitely be more than just a bit of waiting time before we get to see the technology's entry into the solar energy market. Aside from the arrays' ability to harness solar energy, they could also act as cooling devices from structures by absorbing heat without having to use precious electricity.